Guide Plus and VCR Plus - what ever happened to them?

[Jeffhs]

What became of RCA's Guide Plus system (for onscreen TV listings) and VCR Plus+? Guide Plus was a feature of high-end RCA televisions, and VCR Plus was a system found in many VCRs of the late '80s and '90s. The former showed TV listings TV-Guide-style right on the TV screen, giving the viewer the ability to change channels with the remote, directly from that listing; the latter was a system that allowed viewers to set their VCRs for automatic unattended recording of desired programs simply by entering a 1- to six-digit code, found in newspaper and TV Guide listings of the time, into a text box on the TV screen. (I had a Panasonic VCR with VCR Plus+ and liked it a lot, but a tape jammed in it and ruined it after only a couple of years. )

I would think both these features (Guide Plus and VCR Plus) would be very useful with today's flat screens. Why did RCA and Gemstar, respectively, do away with these systems in their TVs and VCRs, long about the '90s or so? There are many people who still have a hard time programming the timer on a VCR (those who still have VCRs in this age of DVRs and DVD/Blu-ray players), so the VCR Plus feature could make a comeback, as could the Guide Plus onscreen program guide. My best guess is that the onscreen program guides found in many if not most cable boxes (and many cable systems; Time Warner had onscreen channel listings on channel 13 until they went digital) have eliminated the need for such program guide systems in the TV receivers themselves, although I think these onscreen guides in TVs that are directly connected to the cable (no box) would still work as they always did with OTA signals.

One thing that no longer works on my 12-year-old Panasonic VCR, however, is the automatic clock set function. This ceased to operate the minute Time Warner converted its cable systems, including the one serving my area, to full digital. I used to be able to automatically set the clock to the exact time of day simply by setting the VCR to the local PBS channel, but since the switch to digital, this does not work any longer. What on earth changed? The VCR is getting an SD analog signal from the cable (I don't have a cable box or HD cable), so I would think the signal it gets from channel 10, the channel the cable system converts the Cleveland PBS channel to, being analog, would operate the auto clock set function just as well as it always has, but it doesn't. The cable still carries analog signals from every local TV station in Cleveland; the only difference is the analog feeds are on different channel numbers--for example, the PBS station in Cleveland is on RF channel 25, but the cable system downconverts it to analog channel ten. Another PBS affiliate the cable gets from out of town is on RF channel 49, but on the cable system it is downconverted to channel 20.

My question is simply this: Why on earth doesn't my VCR treat channel 10 as an analog signal, and have the auto clock set feature process that signal as such? I would think as long as the extended-data signal (XDS) for clock setting is present on that channel, which the VCR is obviously receiving as analog, the auto-clock set would work as well as it always did before DTV. The only thing I can think of is that, when TV went digital in June 2009, my cable just did away with that XDS signal, even though it still carries the Cleveland PBS affiliate on analog channel 10--the reason being, probably, that no one much uses VCRs anymore except for playing back old VHS tapes, as I do. Truth be known, I am simply curious about all this since I haven't used my VCR for recording in quite some time; in fact, the cable is no longer connected to the machine's antenna port, but goes directly to the antenna/cable input port on my flat screen TV.

Thanks much for any and all replies.

[old_tv_nut]

Here is what Wiki says about VCRPlus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_r...cheduling_code

According to this, it would still work if they published the numbers, since it does not depend on data in the signal.

The automatic time setting code, however, was data included in the vertical blanking interval of the analog signal. Since it is not in the digital signal, it does not get put into the vertical interval of the analog signal that is created from the digital signal in your set top box.

[truetone36]

I have a Sharp VCR with VCR Plus in my living room hooked up to the TV. It's been years since I saw the code numbers for any programs published anywhere, though.

[VintagePC]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Here is what Wiki says about VCRPlus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_r...cheduling_code

According to this, it would still work if they published the numbers, since it does not depend on data in the signal.

The automatic time setting code, however, was data included in the vertical blanking interval of the analog signal. Since it is not in the digital signal, it does not get put into the vertical interval of the analog signal that is created from the digital signal in your set top box.

Interestingly enough, people have figured out or written a program to generate such codes given a time, date, channel and program length... Google 'VCR Plus code generator' gives several hits.

[ChrisW6ATV]

One of the first-generation digital-TV converters (DTV Pal made by Echostar, I think) was supposed to be able to convert digital guide information into the TV Guide Plus format on its NTSC output, provided that at least one TV station in any given city set up its digital-TV transmitter to send out the digital equivalent signal, but I don't remember ever hearing of this setup working any place.

Without that digital-to-analog conversion, some DVR boxes (LG and Sony, if I remember right) became near-doorstops once they had no source of guide information, since they could NOT be adapted to set their recording timers by the digital guide data even though they had digital as well as NTSC tuners in them.

[edison64]

Zenith had a similar feature in 1992 and 1993 I had a Zenith TV and VCR That had a system called star site. you pressed the star site button on the remote and it would bring up an on-screen listing of all the channels and shows you simply selected the one you wanted to watch and the time that it was on and the TV or VCR would automatically tune to that program or record it depending if it was on TV or on the VCR. we also had a subscription to USSB which was the United States satellite broadcasting company. the forerunner of dish and DirecTV.

[mpatoray]

My JVC S-VHS VCR has VCR Plus + that with an IR emitter could control a STB. and none of my auto set VCR'S have been able to do that since the transition.